Campus Engagement
Introduction
Engaging in sustainability issues through co-curricular activities allows students to deepen and apply their understandings of sustainability principles. Institution-sponsored co-curricular sustainability offerings, often coordinated by student affairs offices, help integrate sustainability into the campus culture and set a positive tone for the institution. Faculty and staff members’ daily decisions impact an institution’s sustainability performance. Equipping faculty and staff with the tools, knowledge, and motivation to adopt behavior changes that promote sustainability is an essential activity of a sustainable campus.
Featured Resources
New Resources
Creating a Culture of Sustainable Living in Our Residence Halls
- Northern Arizona University (AZ)
This poster describes two pilot programs that were implemented during the 2011-2012 academic year. The programs were funded through a university program that provides grants to graduate and undergraduate students ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Campus Environmental Caucus: Connecting Students, Faculty and Staff Across Disciplines and Departments
- Northern Arizona University (AZ)
The mission of the Environmental Caucus is to facilitate creative and strategic communication across campus to advance the institutional commitment to sustainability and to promote education, research, and collaboration on ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Student Sustainability at Northern Arizona University: Creating Relationships Between Grassroots and Institutional Leadership
- Northern Arizona University (AZ)
Many environmental student groups in higher education have to work within the parameters of any other student group on campus. This can often be difficult when advocating for a full ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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An Exploratory Qualitative Study of Green Student Centers' Influence on the Campus Environment
- Old Dominion University (VA)
Green building and design is an emerging trend in institutions of higher education. It is important to consider the practices and expectations of the users of green buildings. The attitudes ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Free Sustainability! From Theory to Action in the Poverty Class
- Portland Community College (OR)
Sustainability has become one of our cultures most popular virtues. Often sustainability is seen as something to be purchased whether it's higher priced organic vegetables or a carbon offset ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Eco Reps and Leadership Development
- Portland State University (OR)
Leadership development is taken to new depths when participants have an active and inclusive relationship with their program and its purpose. At [University], the Eco Rep program strives to go ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Sustainable University IdeaLab: Engaging Students Through Innovation and Entrepreneurship
- Rochester Institute of Technology (NY)
Universities have big budgets, big energy bills, and large carbon and waste footprints. They also waste a major resource: large numbers of students with great entrepreneurial, technological, and innovative potential ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Institutionalizing student involvement: how one not-profit focuses and develops the leadership capacity of students in the campus sustainability movement.
- Simon Fraser University (BC)
One of the most important factors in achieving campus sustainability is the engagement of the student population. For many staff and faculty, and even students, this can be a challenging ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Learning Within the Student Recreation Center: A USGBC Research to Practice Project
- Sonoma State University (CA)
A small group of undergraduate students came together to participate in the US Green Building Council's Research to Practice pilot program. They chose to engage in a study of ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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A Socially Just Sustainable Office Certification Program
- Texas A&M University (TX)
Planning an office certification that encompasses all aspects of sustainability can be achieved with careful planning. It can actively engage faculty and staff to be more aware of sustainable practices ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Students as Key Stakeholders in Advancing Sustainability in Higher Education
- Thompson Rivers University (BC)
This research project attempted to gauge the "culture of sustainability" among students at Thompson Rivers University (TRU) and to determine whether students are key stakeholders in advancing sustainability by contributing ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Using Student Engagement to Drive AASHE STARS
- University at Buffalo (NY)
Our University, like many other institutions of higher education has engaged in AASHE STARS. During the Spring 2012 semester, our institution piloted a unique approach to gathering the massive amount ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Clicking Towards Campus Sustainability: Creating an Integrated University-Wide Sustainability Portal
- University at Buffalo (NY)
These days, there are countless ways to get the information we want, and even some that we don't! In an age of information overload, having a single point of ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Eco-Reps: The Unpaid Alternative
- University of Arizona (AZ)
Eco-Rep programs are not uncommon. However, many of these positions are paid, necessitating often large amounts of funding before the program can begin. Unable to secure this funding, our university ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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WORK Bright Green-Building a Community Through Staff Sustainability Training
- University of California, Berkeley (CA)
This session will share the recent experience of offering the first ever staff training on campus sustainability in an effort to expand the environmental community and stewardship efforts. The presentation ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Campus Compost Initative
- University of California, Riverside (CA)
Correct post-consumer waste placement is often overlooked in many sustainable, waste diversion efforts undertaken by Universities. It is usually harder to collect because it is up to the person throwing ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Bringing Your Green Fund to the Next Level: Creating Tomorrow's Leaders Through Student-Driven Internal Growth and Leadership Development
- University of California, Santa Barbara (CA)
Campus Green Funds are a necessary component for any college campus striving towards sustainability goals, though few realize its full potential. Since its inception in 1999, the student organization, Associated ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Institute on the Environment Shorts: Answers to "Big Questions"
- University of Minnesota, Morris (MN)
Four short, animated videos illustrate critical research done by researchers at the Institute on the Environment (IonE) at the University of Minnesota. These videos address "Big Questions"" related to global ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Green Games at UNC-Chapel Hill: An Innovative Approach to Engaging Students in Peer Education
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (NC)
Green Games is an environmental competition among the residence halls at UNC-Chapel Hill. Since its inception in 1994, Green Games has evolved into an active and engaging tool for promoting ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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University of North Florida Commuter Preferences Survey of a Commuter Institution
- University of North Florida (FL)
The University of North Florida's Environmental Center survey of students, faculty and staff regarding their commuting preferences when traveling to and from campus. The process of developing the survey ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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University Green Fund: Mobilizing the University Community Towards Sustainability
- University of Northern British Columbia (BC)
In the two years since its creation, the UNBC Green Fund has proven to be successful at mobilizing different university groups into action. The University of Northern British Columbia Green ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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More Than Just a "Green Building": How the Green Quad Has Become a Leader in Faculty, Staff, Student, and Community Collaboration
- Clemson University (SC)
The University of South Carolina's Green Quad was one of the early pioneers that raised everyone's awareness regarding sustainability and green issues in the Southeast. Today, the Green ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Green Leadership: Engaging and Supporting Civic Leaders Through Campus Sustainability Programming
- University of South Carolina (SC)
Campus sustainability organizations can be an important avenue for student leadership development. Sustainable Carolina, the umbrella sustainability organization at the University of South Carolina, is a non-hierarchical organization focused on ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Sustainability as Deep Learning: the University of the District of Columbia's Sustainable City Faculty Fellowship
- University of the District of Columbia (DC)
The University of the District of Columbia's Sustainable City Faculty Fellowship (SCFF) is a collaborative, interdisciplinary professional development program designed to integrate sustainability into curriculum throughout UDC's schools ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Action Research in Education for Sustainability at the University of Vermont's Greenhouse Residential Learning Community
- University of Vermont (VT)
Higher education institutions are addressing sustainability issues through the Education for Sustainability (EfS) framework. Innovative curricula on sustainability provide engaging topics and contexts through which to teach and learn about ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Environmental Leadership Program
- University of Vermont (VT)
The ELP Fellowship Program targets emerging environmental and social change practitioners eager to connect their specialized work to larger environmental and social concerns. The Fellowship Program offers intensive leadership, diversity ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Engaging Students in Sustainable Food Procurement: The Real Food Calculator at the University of Washington
- University of Washington, Seattle (WA)
The Real Food Challenge approaches student engagement in food systems work reform in various ways, one of which is an in-depth student research tool called the Real Food Calculator. It ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Creating and Maintaining Relations through a Changing Campus Ecology
- University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire (WI)
The campus ecology of the University of Eau Claire Wisconsin has helped to shape current and future construction projects to mindfully approach the improvement of the campus environment. The establishment ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Empowering Physical Plant as Sustainability Ambassadors
- Xavier University (OH)
The Office of Physical Plant as Xavier University has 85 professionals, serving a campus community of 8,000 plus. The Sustainability Program was quietly effective, but the department's humility ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Towards a Zero Plus Campus
- University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (MN)
The Zero Plus Campus Project (Z+ Project) is developing an innovative interdisciplinary curriculum focused on modeling the performance of the buildings integrated in the landscape to regenerate the campus environment ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Appalachian State University Sustainability and the Arts
- Appalachian State University (NC)
Psychotherapist James Hillman questioned, "Could the causes of major social, political, and economic issues of our time also be found in the repression of beauty?"* Appalachian State University believes sustainability ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Campus Citizenship Behavior: A Motivational Analysis for Change
- Chatham University (PA)
All intentional behavior is a function of motivational forces within the individual to engage in certain actions while forgoing other actions. Classic theories of motivation such as expectancy theory, equity ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Creating a culture of firestarters: How to cultivate highly effective students
- University of Missouri (MO)
Students are an essential part of a robust campus sustainability movement. Their involvement is not only educationally valuable for them, it can also expedite your projects and allow you to ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Toward Zero Waste: An Initiative for the Student Union
- Boston University (MA)
Campus dining is an intimate part of student life at any university, with the potential to have a major impact on culture. Learn how Dining Services can align with the ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Moving to the Next Level: Are we are preaching to the choir?
- Wright State University (OH)
As professionals committed to sustainability, we read the books and reports, we study the literature on how to implement programs to get our campus educated about sustainability in their daily ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Introduction to Sustainable Development: Creative Teaching Techniques to Connect, Engage, and Enlighten
- Appalachian State University (NC)
How do you introduce and explicate the complicated and interdisciplinary concept of Sustainable Development? This interactive presentation will explore a variety of ways to creatively and effectively teach the Gordian ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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A Student-Led Sustainability Fund at The University of British Columbia
- University of British Columbia (BC)
Through holding a referendum in March 2011, students have established a fund for the selection of sustainability projects. A sustainability fund marketing launch plan has been developed by partnering with ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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A Sustainable Course on Sustainability
- Dickinson College (PA)
My college recently offered me the opportunity to teach a new kind of course with a new set of technological teaching tools. This class, "Thoreau, Wilderness, and American Nature Writing ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Energy auditing by summer undergraduate interns
- Sewanee - The University of the South (TN)
With tight budgets, many small colleges have a hard time finding the funds to hire a consulting engineering firm to conduct energy audits and develop retrofit strategies. A way to ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Institutionalizing Innovation: Student Government "sustainability"" bodies and roles"
- Carnegie Mellon University (PA)
Once students (via student clubs or individually) begin experimenting with efforts to make their programs/campuses/communities more sustainable, additional leaders pick them up and want to incorporate such experiences ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Institutionalizing Zero Waste
- Carnegie Mellon University (PA)
Once organizations (student clubs, departments/schools, campuses, etc.) begin experimenting with Zero Waste ("ZW"") efforts, additional leaders pick them up and want to incorporate such experiences and benefits into their ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Student Eco-Rep Programs: Meeting the evolving needs of an existing program
- Champlain College (VT)
With now over 60 student sustainability education Eco-Rep Programs across the US and Canada, several of which are 5-10 years old, it is time to step back, reflect on where ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Connecting Campus and Community on Earth Day
- Indiana University South Bend (IN)
The Center for a Sustainable Future celebrates Earth Day as an international day of awareness of environmental policy, education, and public engagement. It is also celebrated as an anniversary for ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Putting the Sustainability into Existing Courses
- Frostburg State University (MD)
While many courses have a potential connection to sustainability studies, developing that linkage requires additional work. For existing courses to maximize their contribution to the sustainability studies program, course revision ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Campus Sustainability Programs as a Tool for Building Student Leadership
- University of South Carolina (SC)
Campus sustainability organization can be an important avenue for student leadership development. At the University of South Carolina, applying green values across the campus has gone beyond transforming the curriculum ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Measure, Message, Motivate: building an inclusive and empowered campus sustainability culture
- Yale University (CT)
Campuses around the world are tracing sustainability metrics, but how do we communicate those measurements in a way that engages and empowers students, staff, and faculty?
Our university has developed ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Addressing Behavior
- Boston University (MA)
To bring about campus sustainability we must provide an infrastructure, modify operations and change the expectations and behavior of our campus communities. To raise awareness, education our faculty and staff ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Developing an effective sustainability communications program without breaking your budget.
- University of Minnesota, Duluth (MN)
Communication is a critical tool for a campus sustainability program, especially when newly established. This session will cover lessons learned and tips that we've found valuable in making the ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Grounding Sustainability in Faith-Based Mission and Identity
- CHA (NY)
There is much to celebrate on faith-based college and university campuses as environmental sustainability is increasingly seen as a core value. Yet while many faith-based schools have successfully taken steps ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Sustainability Education: Opportunities to Embrace Leadership Development and Cross Cultural Team Building
- Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FL)
While higher education has played an influential role in various issues within American society, the depth of its persuasion must permeate the nation's path to sustainability. Incorporating sustainability into ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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This tab provides access to data collected through AASHE’s Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System™ (STARS). STARS is a transparent, self-reporting framework for colleges and universities to measure their sustainability performance. STARS enables meaningful comparisons over time and across institutions using a common set of measurements developed with broad participation from the campus sustainability community.
All responses reference content from reports under the latest version of STARS, version 2.2. AASHE membership and log-in is required.
EN 1: Student Educators Program
- Percent of students served by a peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education program
- Description of the student educators program (1st program)
- Description of the student educators program (2nd program)
- Brief description of the student educators program (3rd program)
- Hours worked annually by trained student sustainability educators per students served
- Website URL - Student sustainability educators programs
EN 2: Student Orientation
- Percent of entering students that have an opportunity to participate in sustainability-inclusive orientation activities and programming
- Description of how sustainability is included prominently in new student orientation
- Website URL - Information about sustainability in student orientation
EN 3: Student Life
- Description of the active student groups focused on sustainability
- Description of student gardens, farms, CSAs, fishery programs, and/or urban agriculture projects
- Description of the student-run enterprises
- Description of student sustainable investment funds, green revolving funds or sustainable microfinance initiatives
- Description of sustainability-focused conferences, speaker series, symposia, or similar events for students
- Description of sustainability-focused cultural arts events, installations, or performances
- Description of the wilderness or outdoors programs that follow Leave No Trace principles
- Description of sustainability-focused themes chosen for themed semesters, years, or first-year experiences
- Description of the programs through which students can learn sustainable life skills
- Description of sustainability-focused student employment opportunities offered by the institution
- Description of graduation pledge(s)
- Description of other co-curricular sustainability programs and initiatives
EN 4: Student Life
- Website URL - Central sustainability website
- Description of sustainability newsletter or social media platform(s)
- Description of the signage that highlights campus sustainability features
- Description of the sustainability walking map or tour
- Description of the guide for green living and/or incorporating sustainability into the residential experience
- Description of other comprehensive sustainability outreach materials and publications
EN 5: Student Life
- Description of the first sustainability outreach campaign
- Description of the second sustainability outreach campaign
- Description of other sustainability-related outreach campaigns
EN 6: Assessing Sustainability Culture
- Description of how and when the cultural assessment(s) were developed and/or adopted
- Copy or sample of the questions related to sustainability culture (upload)
- Copy or sample of the questions related to sustainability culture (description)
- Website URL - Assessment of sustainability culture
EN 7: Employee Educators Program
- Percent of employees served by a peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education program
- Description of the employee educators program (1st program)
- Description of the employee educators program (2nd program)
- Hours worked annually by trained employee sustainability educators per employees served
- Website URL - Employee sustainability educators programs
EN 8: Employee Orientation
- Percent of new employees that have an opportunity to participate in sustainability-inclusive orientation activities and programming
- Description of how sustainability is included prominently in new employee orientation
- Website URL - Information about sustainability in employee orientation
EN 9: Staff Professional Development & Training
- Estimated percentage of regular, non-academic staff that participates annually in sustainability professional development and training
- Description of any internal sustainability professional development and training opportunities
- Description of any external professional development and training opportunities in sustainability that are supported by the institution
- Estimated percentage of staff for which sustainability is included in performance reviews
- Description of how sustainability is included in staff performance reviews
- Website URL - Information about staff professional development and training in sustainability
Additional analysis on scores and quantitative fields can be conducted using the STARS Benchmarking Tool.